Afternoon all,
As requested by a couple of people, here follows a few words about what happened to my bike a couple of weeks ago whilst on my way to the BMW owners club track day at Snetterton (Wednesday 8th Aug):
Background: Purchased new in May 2017, 6500 miles on the clock, annual service completed in May of this year. Non-modified engine. No previous issues whatsoever. In warranty.
I was on the A11 not far from Thetford. Lane 2, cruising with traffic, temps normal, bike feeling normal.
Bike suddenly hesitates and loses power, no warning lights at this stage but a quick look in the mirror tells me all I need to know: A huge plume of white smoke is billowing from the right hand side...faaaak!
Immediately look to get off the road and thankfully a slip road was a couple of hundred meters away. Engine started to make some expensive sounding noises at this point and the low oil warning lamp came on.
Parked up and assessed the situation: Oil dropping from around the rear of the engine. Exhaust system, rear wheel and tyre (!) covered in oil. I was lucky to stay upright.
Phoned BMW emergency services to recover me (good service, specific bike recovery vehicle). I requested to be recovered to Reiten Motorrad (local to me, serviced there, good guys).
As I got myself home in the very nice 3 Series loan car they stripped the plastics and started initial assessment: A hole in the crankcase at the front of the engine, bloody hell!
Further stripping the engine they found that a valve in cylinder 1 had failed, dropped and the resulting internal interfacing caused a con rod to punch the hole. In their experience they say they had never seen a gen 3 drop a valve, and were very surprised.
I must say that Reiten and BMW have been exceptional; no quibbling, whole new engine approved and delivered on the Saturday, fitted and trailered back to me the following Tuesday. New rear Dunlop TT fitted and some other goodwill thrown in.
I can confirm that being back on the limiter for 600 miles is as frustrating as you can imagine, however, a small price to pay to know that I have a fresh motor underneath me.
I believe the engine is going back to Berlin for analysis, obviously a component has failed in a big way.
So, thanks to Reiten Motorrad and BMW for getting me back on the road efficiently and with excellent customer service. My thinking is that I've been very unlucky to have an engine fail in this way so the chances of a second one expiring on me are minimal!
Cheers
Mike
As requested by a couple of people, here follows a few words about what happened to my bike a couple of weeks ago whilst on my way to the BMW owners club track day at Snetterton (Wednesday 8th Aug):
Background: Purchased new in May 2017, 6500 miles on the clock, annual service completed in May of this year. Non-modified engine. No previous issues whatsoever. In warranty.
I was on the A11 not far from Thetford. Lane 2, cruising with traffic, temps normal, bike feeling normal.
Bike suddenly hesitates and loses power, no warning lights at this stage but a quick look in the mirror tells me all I need to know: A huge plume of white smoke is billowing from the right hand side...faaaak!
Immediately look to get off the road and thankfully a slip road was a couple of hundred meters away. Engine started to make some expensive sounding noises at this point and the low oil warning lamp came on.
Parked up and assessed the situation: Oil dropping from around the rear of the engine. Exhaust system, rear wheel and tyre (!) covered in oil. I was lucky to stay upright.
Phoned BMW emergency services to recover me (good service, specific bike recovery vehicle). I requested to be recovered to Reiten Motorrad (local to me, serviced there, good guys).
As I got myself home in the very nice 3 Series loan car they stripped the plastics and started initial assessment: A hole in the crankcase at the front of the engine, bloody hell!
Further stripping the engine they found that a valve in cylinder 1 had failed, dropped and the resulting internal interfacing caused a con rod to punch the hole. In their experience they say they had never seen a gen 3 drop a valve, and were very surprised.
I must say that Reiten and BMW have been exceptional; no quibbling, whole new engine approved and delivered on the Saturday, fitted and trailered back to me the following Tuesday. New rear Dunlop TT fitted and some other goodwill thrown in.
I can confirm that being back on the limiter for 600 miles is as frustrating as you can imagine, however, a small price to pay to know that I have a fresh motor underneath me.
I believe the engine is going back to Berlin for analysis, obviously a component has failed in a big way.
So, thanks to Reiten Motorrad and BMW for getting me back on the road efficiently and with excellent customer service. My thinking is that I've been very unlucky to have an engine fail in this way so the chances of a second one expiring on me are minimal!
Cheers
Mike
).
